Joined Dec 2014
L3: Novice
Forum Thread
How to Host an Inexpensive Wedding
April 6, 2016 at
06:49 AM
So I recently got engaged, and holy shit was I surprised when I found out how much the average wedding in the U.S. costs (about 30k for those unaware). Being a slickdealer I was immediately suspicious at what appears to be an outrageous cost, for basically throwing a large party. Like anything else in life, I know that there are ways to save money when hosting such an event, but I'm having a really hard time figuring out how. I have tried posting in specific wedding forums, but have been met with tons of negativity, and claims that it can't be done, from people who's opinions seem very suspect to me.
Maybe I'm just being an arrogant misinformed dick, but I find it very hard to believe that a wedding HAS to cost this much money. I feel like the slickdeals community can resolve this question for me once and for all, so here it is:
Were you able to have a relatively inexpensive wedding? Estimate what your cost was per guest? How did you save money? What were the sacrifices/compromises that you made?
Personally, I have a pretty specific idea of what I want at my wedding. If you have any saving ideas that apply to my plans specifically please let me know.
What I envision:
Outside wedding in a beautiful field under a tent in New England early September with about 150-200 guests (no church/priest, so saving money there). I want to host my guests appropriately so I want an open bar and a fully catered wedding with music. I feel like location/space, food, booze, music, and bathrooms are all you need to host a fun filled wedding, so why does it cost so much?
What I think I need:
1. Venue, large field, requires lots of parking, access to electricity, bathrooms (or option of port-a-potties). How do I get this cheap?
2. Booze, seems pretty self explanatory, buy it yourself and you'll save way more money than if you purchase through a middle man.
3. Food, I believe you can get pretty good catering for about 25 bucks a person. What did you guys pay? Does it make a difference in price that it is being held outdoors?
4. Bathrooms, hopefully on site, but if not renting port-a-potties. Any specific way to get nicer ones on the cheap?
5. Music, probably rent a sound system and make my own playlist. Are there businesses that offer this type of thing at a lower price bracket?
6. Tent, this own is expensive, I can't seem to find large tent rentals that seem like they are fairly priced. It is a very unique item, so maybe this is something I will have to pay for.
7. Various rentals, tables, chairs, linens, dinnerware, wineglasses, dance floor, stage.
Thanks for the help
-Ben
Maybe I'm just being an arrogant misinformed dick, but I find it very hard to believe that a wedding HAS to cost this much money. I feel like the slickdeals community can resolve this question for me once and for all, so here it is:
Were you able to have a relatively inexpensive wedding? Estimate what your cost was per guest? How did you save money? What were the sacrifices/compromises that you made?
Personally, I have a pretty specific idea of what I want at my wedding. If you have any saving ideas that apply to my plans specifically please let me know.
What I envision:
Outside wedding in a beautiful field under a tent in New England early September with about 150-200 guests (no church/priest, so saving money there). I want to host my guests appropriately so I want an open bar and a fully catered wedding with music. I feel like location/space, food, booze, music, and bathrooms are all you need to host a fun filled wedding, so why does it cost so much?
What I think I need:
1. Venue, large field, requires lots of parking, access to electricity, bathrooms (or option of port-a-potties). How do I get this cheap?
2. Booze, seems pretty self explanatory, buy it yourself and you'll save way more money than if you purchase through a middle man.
3. Food, I believe you can get pretty good catering for about 25 bucks a person. What did you guys pay? Does it make a difference in price that it is being held outdoors?
4. Bathrooms, hopefully on site, but if not renting port-a-potties. Any specific way to get nicer ones on the cheap?
5. Music, probably rent a sound system and make my own playlist. Are there businesses that offer this type of thing at a lower price bracket?
6. Tent, this own is expensive, I can't seem to find large tent rentals that seem like they are fairly priced. It is a very unique item, so maybe this is something I will have to pay for.
7. Various rentals, tables, chairs, linens, dinnerware, wineglasses, dance floor, stage.
Thanks for the help
-Ben
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This can be proven fairly easily by looking at the cost to rent a wedding venue, and comparing it to the cost of a similar property that is being offered as a vacation rental or such. The prices are normally doubled with very minimal differences in the services being offered.
We held the service outside at a beautiful spot (just outside Zion National Park in Utah) on the grounds of a restaurant. We held the reception at the restaurant and they didn't charge a fee for the venue. We paid around $25 per guest for the meal. We provided one bar drink per person - I think the total bill from the restaurant (food, alcohol, venue, seating) was under $2,500. We didn't have a tent - the backup in case of rain was an indoor venue nearby. We spend something like $1,300 on flowers, which I thought was a lot.
I've heard one trick is to NOT mention the event is a wedding when getting price quotes, such as for the venue or rentals as they jack up the price for weddings. Just say it's a party.
And personally I'd avoid portable toilets for a wedding if at all possible.
Also, don't buy an expenisve $1,000+ ring. They're not worth it. It's something that was started by the jewelry industry about 100 years ago. You can easily get the same ring from a big diamond store at a pawn shop for 1/4 the price. And before you say you don't want someone's used ring, all gold and diamond dealers do is take out a diamond from 1 ring, put it in another, and now its a "new' ring. So even buy a "new" ring at a jewelry store is no guarantee it was from another person.
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Cutting down on the guest list is another great way to save money, however it's somewhere that I'm not very flexible. How do I cut down on the cost per guest? This is the cost that I'm more focused on, because once we know how to find ways to save on the cost per guest it becomes easier to figure out exactly how many guests you can afford with your budget. I have a huge family (60+ people), as well as a lot of long time friends that are very important to me, cutting down on guest count just really isn't an option for me.
Cutting down on the guest list is another great way to save money, however it's somewhere that I'm not very flexible. How do I cut down on the cost per guest? This is the cost that I'm more focused on, because once we know how to find ways to save on the cost per guest it becomes easier to figure out exactly how many guests you can afford with your budget. I have a huge family (60+ people), as well as a lot of long time friends that are very important to me, cutting down on guest count just really isn't an option for me.
My wedding was decidedly a non-traditional affair.
Also, I didn't realize the ring was considered part of the $30k average wedding cost. That seems strange to include that IMO. Hers was about $5k, or $10k in today's dollars - far less than the "two month's salary" bs. But she got an exceptionally high quality (though not huge) ring for that price.
Maybe I'm just being an arrogant misinformed dick, but I find it very hard to believe that a wedding HAS to cost this much money. I feel like the slickdeals community can resolve this question for me once and for all, so here it is:
Were you able to have a relatively inexpensive wedding? Estimate what your cost was per guest? How did you save money? What were the sacrifices/compromises that you made?
Personally, I have a pretty specific idea of what I want at my wedding. If you have any saving ideas that apply to my plans specifically please let me know.
What I envision:
Outside wedding in a beautiful field under a tent in New England early September with about 150-200 guests (no church/priest, so saving money there). I want to host my guests appropriately so I want an open bar and a fully catered wedding with music. I feel like location/space, food, booze, music, and bathrooms are all you need to host a fun filled wedding, so why does it cost so much?
What I think I need:
1. Venue, large field, requires lots of parking, access to electricity, bathrooms (or option of port-a-potties). How do I get this cheap?
2. Booze, seems pretty self explanatory, buy it yourself and you'll save way more money than if you purchase through a middle man.
3. Food, I believe you can get pretty good catering for about 25 bucks a person. What did you guys pay? Does it make a difference in price that it is being held outdoors?
4. Bathrooms, hopefully on site, but if not renting port-a-potties. Any specific way to get nicer ones on the cheap?
5. Music, probably rent a sound system and make my own playlist. Are there businesses that offer this type of thing at a lower price bracket?
6. Tent, this own is expensive, I can't seem to find large tent rentals that seem like they are fairly priced. It is a very unique item, so maybe this is something I will have to pay for.
7. Various rentals, tables, chairs, linens, dinnerware, wineglasses, dance floor, stage.
Thanks for the help
-Ben
1. Venue is probably the 2nd biggest expense for most people. It's possible to find a big field (especially in NE), you just have to look. However, don't discount a covered venue, which may provide chairs, tables, dinnerware, etc as rental fees can get quite expensive. Covered venues likely already come with lights, too
2. Yep, buy the booze yourself - if your venue and state laws allow it. Even better if you can return unopened bottles afterwards. Not all venues and laws allow it, though, so you may be stuck. Think we spent about $1k on booze.
3. I don't know NE prices, but $25 / person is a pipe dream for (traditional) wedding catering. Outside Chicago 4 years ago, prices started around $35-$40 pp and went up (quickly) from there. I'm sure you can get e.g., Chipotle to cater for less, just a question of what you want. Some caterers will require the venue to have an on-site catering kitchen; others won't. It may impact the taste of the food if it doesn't have one. This will likely be the most expensive portion of the wedding.
4. There are no nice port-a-potties. Don't rent port-a-potties for a wedding (though, if you are dead-set on it, get some trailers [portablerestroomtrailers.com] with running water).
5. Making your own playlist is doable, just be aware of how long the playlist needs to be, different moods / genres (may not want speed metal during dinner), things like that. Big issue with homemade playlists is dealing with requests and dealing with music that doesn't fit the mood of the party. A good DJ will read the crowd and play appropriate music to get / keep the dancing going. We got a DJ for $500 (+ tip), so you may not be saving much doing your own music after renting the sound system.
6 and 7. Rentals can be a very large part of your budget (maybe 3rd biggest item). Some venues will provide some or all of these items, so keep that in mind when looking around. Seriously consider buying and reselling afterwards. My wife and I wound up buying linens for about the same price we could rent them and sold them all afterwards on CL. We didn't recoup our entire purchase price, but we did come out ahead compared to renting them. It did take over a year to get them all sold, though, which was a big PITA.
I didn't see a photographer on your list. They can range in price from ~$500 to $3k or more, depending on what's included, how many photographers, how long (do you want pictures before the ceremony, all throughout the reception, etc).
One of the best ways I've heard to cut down on costs is to have a wedding earlier in the day. Lunch is cheaper than dinner, and hors d'oeuvres are cheaper than lunch. People probably won't drink as much, and there may be fewer people at your wedding than if it were at night.
Buffets are cheaper than plated, so you can save there. Fridays and Sundays are generally cheaper than Saturdays, and weekdays are cheapest of all. All a matter of what you want.
I've heard about not saying it's for a wedding when you're getting prices and booking and such, but I doubt that makes a difference. Good venues, caterers, bakers, etc get booked up regardless of what they host, making the function a bit moot.
As I said, a lot of what you pay for is the convenience and expertise of the professionals you hire. If you have the time, you can do all kinds of stuff for the wedding yourself - table centerpieces, decorations, rentals (buy and resell), booze, flowers, music, whatever. Some of it is time-sensitive (e.g., flowers); others not so much (e.g., rentals). If you do a lot yourself, be prepared to spend the entire week (or more) before the wedding prepping things (possibly with a bunch of your friends), with the last few nights probably being very late nights.
I will also say that the more specific your idea of what you want your wedding to be, the more expensive it will likely be. Flexibility equates to things being cheaper.
You can decorate them, can't you?